A world without borders...

[khiemtran]

I've changed the setting of the story at hand to remove the well-defined states and borders. Now there is simply a loose collection of settlements, each recognisable by their rites and language as belonging to The Middle People. Instead of stable power structures, there is a great sense of chaos and the unknown. Whom a village pays taxes to depends on who - or what - turns up to demand it. And as well as the struggle between various power centres for dominance, there are also threats from all sides. They are the middle people not because they fill the world, but because they are surrounded by it.

I've also scaled down the powers of one of the characters and ejected some of the others. Hopefully, this will let me focus on simpler, stronger storylines. Taking inspiration from _A Dream of Red Mansions_, I'm to try to do more with less. The stakes will be lower, but more personal, and therefore, hopefully, greater to the characters concerned.

Comments

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

I think the way you describe it now sits much better with the feel of the story you've talked about than the nation state model with fixed borders which applied only to a very small segment of human history.